


Cleanup on Aisle Three

by darkly_ironic



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-22
Updated: 2015-04-22
Packaged: 2018-03-25 06:47:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3800788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darkly_ironic/pseuds/darkly_ironic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Levi's having a terrible morning, and the attention of overly-concerned, stupidly tall strangers isn't helping. Or, the one where Levi can't grocery store.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cleanup on Aisle Three

**Author's Note:**

> Based on the second prompt from here: http://promptsfordays.tumblr.com/post/116244449490/height-difference-aus

Sometimes, Levi wished he lived with a less particular roommate.

There was one box of Hange’s favorite cereal left, just one, and it was taunting him, teasing him from the shelf that was just above the top of his head, further up than any reasonable cereal box had a right to be. 

He considered it, shifting his weight off his bad ankle. Normally, he’d be able to reach it, even if he had to climb onto the cart to do it, but since he sprained his ankle a week ago, things that were annoying obstacles normally had turned into hugely frustrating ones. Damn Hange and her science experiments. 

He went up on tiptoes on his good leg, reaching up for the cereal. His fingers had just grazed the box when his ankle twinged, and he teetered, his hands reaching out to steady himself. Instead of breaking his fall, his hands hit nothing but cereal boxes, and he pitched forward, crashing into the shelf like a downed tree. He flailed, trying to catch his balance, but only succeeded in hitting his face against the shelf and knocking half the contents within arm reach onto the floor. He landed ass-first on the floor with a solid thump, cereal boxes scattered around him, the debris of a lost battle. 

Fuck everything.

“Are you alright?”

Levi blinked, the face far, far above his swimming into view. Then it got considerably closer as the man standing over him knelt down, and damn, no one should be allowed to have eyebrows like that. Or eyes. Or cheekbones. Fuck him too. 

“I’m fine.” Levi swatted away the hand his wanna-be knight in shining armor was offering and pushed himself up to something that more or less resembled a sitting position. 

He’d hoped the man would get the hint and move on, but he didn’t, his majestic eyebrows furrowing slightly as he gave Levi’s body a slightly lingering once-over. 

“What were you trying to do?” The man was looking between Levi, the catastrophe of cereal boxes on the floor, and the shelves like he couldn’t quite believe that Levi had been the cause of such devastation. 

“Stretching, what the fuck does it look like?” Levi tried to stand, he really did, but his legs weren’t willing to cooperate yet. “Are you just going to stand there like an asshole, or are you going to help me up?”

“Of course,” the man said, far too graciously, and, with no apparent effort, pulled Levi to his feet. He even held him up when Levi wobbled dangerously, his hands—his massive hands—firm but gentle on Levi’s shoulder and forearm. 

And damn, he was tall. He probably never had to worry about slightly-higher-than-normal shelves. Hell, he could probably reach the overstock with no problem. 

“Which one were you trying to get?”

Levi pointed. The whole thing felt kind of pathetic now. Hange better appreciate her damn cereal. 

The man scooped off the floor, hesitating for a second, his back towards Levi, before putting it in his cart. “Do you want help with these?” he asked, flashing a disgustingly blinding smile, and Levi shrugged.

“If you don’t have anything better to do with your day.” 

They’d only put about three boxes back off the shelf before an employee showed up and politely, but firmly, shoed them off. The stranger stayed close behind Levi as he limped towards the checkout. “Will you make it home okay?” he asked, and good god, what did he get out of being such a solicitous hoverer? 

“Yeah, I’ll be fine.” Levi was half-tempted to call Hange and her drive him home, but that would probably lower his chances of survival more than just doing it himself, bad ankle be damned. 

The man smiled again, and then he was gone, like a ninja. A really tall, stupidly handsome, ninja. Levi shrugged to himself. He wasn’t just a little bit disappointed, not at all. 

The line was slow. Levi inched forwards, and leaned against the cart with a sigh as his progress stuttered to a halt again. The cereal box was sitting on top of his egg carton like it hadn’t just wrecked havoc all over his morning, and across the side of the box—

Levi frowned and picked it up, turning it over. There was a name and a phone number scrawled on the cardboard in Sharpie, and what the fuck kind of name was “Erwin” anyway? What a bastard. 

Levi wasn’t smiling. He wasn’t. Really. And if he saved the number into his phone, no one had to know.


End file.
